Education Function in Society

Introduction

Academics tend to be fairly skilled at self-lacerating narcissism, but at the time we talk about an appalling luxury, an indulgence in a kind of intellectual self-pity at a moment when the basic skills of education such as critical thinking, articulation, and self-reflection become so concretely valuable. As the world is changing day by day so the function of education is also changing. Education helps in developing all round aspects of a person. Those countries where education has become vital are working together to decrease brutal, nonsensical acts of violence in the society (Loffreda, 2000, pp.1-31).

Discussion

Upon reading Beth Loffreda's, Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder, I was struck by the implications of this book for educators working to eradicate anti-gay bias from America's schools. Losing Matt Shepard offers a glimpse into the identity politics that have helped shape the American West and that characterize the way in which residents of Laramie, Wyoming, have dealt with the aftermath of Shepard's murder. Admirably, the author balances respect for the privacy of individuals involved with the accurate portrayal of people and events including Shepard's murder, the ensuing media blitz, and the varied ways in which residents of Laramie have coped with being thrown into the international spotlight (Loffreda, 2000, pp.1-31).

Like school districts that institute policies and programs in attempts to enhance equity for students, which often result in staunch opposition from moral conservatives, “Laramie unwillingly arrived at the center of national debates about bias, violence, and their legal remedies; and Wyoming, generally laconic and frequently defensive when it came to talking about inequality and sexuality both, found itself in some difficult conversations” (xiii). Shepard's murder forced the people of Wyoming, the United States, and others around the world to revisit, or perhaps address for the first time, the topics of bias-motivated crimes and society's stigmatization of educational identities.

The education is a part of society that mainly focuses on the social issues due to violation spurred on by media attention to Shepard's murder in October 1998, advocates of bias crimes legislation had hoped that public opinion and raised awareness of crimes against people would aid their lobbying efforts. One week after Shepard's murder, however, the city of Fort Collins, Colorado, sixty miles from Laramie and where Shepard was hospitalized and died, voted down a proposal to include sexual orientation in its antidiscrimination statute. Likewise, several attempts at bias crimes legislation in the 1999 Wyoming state legislature failed amidst cries from moral conservatives that such legislation would help to “legitimate and promote homosexuality,” would accord “special rights” to GLBTQ people, and would result in discrimination against Christians and others who believe homosexuality is wrong (Nafisi, 2003, pp.3-26).

Even in Laramie, where Shepard was beaten, authors of a 1999 proposed bias crimes ordinance faced such strong opposition from moral conservatives they were forced to compromise their position resulting in a watered-down version of the original that lacked any authority and was described as “toothless”. Even so, the watered-down version, ...